Golez: EDCA will be a game changer in the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific Region. And this will be in the interest of the Philippines.
Philippine Court Clears Way for Bigger U.S. Military Role
Supreme Court rules that defense agreement reached in 2014 doesn’t require Senate approval
U.S. and Philippine troops during a joint military exercise in October. The Philippines’ Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a defense agreement between the two nations doesn’t require Senate approval. PHOTO: ROUELLE UMALI/ZUMA PRESS
MANILA—The Philippines’ top court cleared the way for U.S. troops to deploy to the Southeast Asian country, approving a contested defense pact that stands to enhance American power in the region at a time when China is asserting itself more forcefully.
Tuesday’s ruling ended months of speculation about the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, designed to revitalize the 65-year-old U.S.-Philippine alliance two decades after American forces pulled out of the country. The 2014 pact had been stalled for nearly two years by a legal challenge.
The Supreme Court’s 10-4 decision came hours before U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Secretary of State John Kerry held security talks with their Philippine counterparts Voltaire Gazminand Albert Del Rosario in Washington.
Both countries welcomed the ruling. Mr. Carter said it gives the U.S. new opportunities to work with the Philippines on maritime security.
The goals of the defense accord include “freedom of navigation and freedom of the commons,” Mr. Carter said. “The United States has indicated our intention to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, whether it be the South China Sea or anywhere else around the world.”
Mr. Kerry said the ruling would allow the U.S. and Philippine militaries to work together more closely and better respond to humanitarian emergencies.
Mr. Gazmin said the two countries’ security interests have become “increasingly intertwined.”
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, also hailed the ruling in a statement issued ahead of a planned meeting later Tuesday with Messrs. Gazmin and del Rosario.
“As Manila finds itself the target of Chinese coercion in the West Philippine Sea and is looking to Washington for leadership, this agreement will give us new tools to deepen our alliance with the Philippines, expand engagement with the Philippine Armed Forces, and enhance our presence in Southeast Asia,” Mr. McCain said.
By ruling that the deal isn’t a new treaty requiring Senate approval but an “executive agreement” legally signed by President Benigno Aquino III, the court ensures that it won’t be abandoned when the term-limited leader leaves office in June. Instead, the U.S. can now deploy thousands of Marines to the Philippines and increase the presence of aircraft and naval ships to Philippine facilities.
The 10-year defense agreement allows Manila to retain control of its bases and grants the U.S. some existing bases on a rotational basis.
The U.S. abandoned its military network in the country after the Philippine Senate in 1991 rejected a proposed new treaty that would have allowed the U.S. to maintain its naval base in Subic Bay and the Clark Air Base.
Subic Bay, which used to be the U.S. Navy’s biggest stronghold outside the U.S., now serves as a commercial shipyard and container port. The Philippines is also moving ahead with the construction of facilities at Subic Bay to house new ships and planes currently being procured for the Philippine navy and air force.
Clark Air Base, once the epicenter of American air operations in the Western Pacific, was later reborn as the Clark Freeport Zone. Clark now serves as a commercial airport. A Philippine Air Force base is also situated there.
The Philippines is banking on a restored American presence at Clark Air Base and Subic Bay—located near the South China Sea—to provide “deterrence against further Chinese provocation” and “enhance their security alliance,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a security expert at De La Salle University in Manila.
On Monday, China defended its decision to start operating flights from a newly built airstrip in the disputed Spratly Islands, calling the flights “totally within China’s sovereignty.” China claims most of the South China Sea, parts of which are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
During a visit to Manila late last year, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to provide two ships to the Philippine Navy, and the Philippines were expected to seek additional military support during the talks in Washington.
“The laundry list of needs for the Philippine military is almost endless,” said Gregory Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S. think-tank. He said the “U.S. can, and should, regularize and broaden the operations it conducts in the Spratlys via the Freedom of Navigation Program” in support of its ally.
In return, Manila might commit to joining the U.S.’s freedom-of-navigation operations, which Washington began last year to assert the right to sail and fly close to artificial islands recently built by China, said Mr. Heydarian.
The immediate focus will be on upgrading Philippine military facilities to prepare for the arrival of U.S. forces. “The Philippines and the U.S. will have to move quickly” given the pace of Chinese construction in the disputed region, he said.
—Felicia Schwartz contributed to this article.
Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com
